1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mechanism for arranging different types of connectors, and particularly to an insulative bracket which arranges connectors of different dimension at different levels for effectively conserving space within a computer housing.
2. The Prior Art
The trend of the computer industry is to create products having an increased speed of signal transmission and a compact size while maintaining a high level of performance. To meet this trend, single electrical connectors are combined in modules on a mother board disposed within a computer housing, whereby electrical components on the mother board can be more compactly arranged thereon.
Computers commonly employ more than one D-sub connector for use as I/O connectors. The D-sub connectors usually include nine, fifteen, or twenty-five signal transmission pins corresponding to different applications and each connector is mounted on a rear portion of the mother board adjacent to a rear panel of the computer housing thereby occupying a significant amount of space on the mother board. In addition, the installation of additional connectors onto the mother board becomes difficult.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,037,330, 5,080,609, 5,336,109, 5,401,192, and 5,407,336 each disclose module connectors which combine connectors together for reducing occupied space on the mother board. However, since many peripheral devices are connected to the computer at the rear portion of the mother board, such conventional module connectors cannot successfully meet the requirements.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,800,207, which is assigned to the same assignee as the present invention, discloses a bracket for combining three D-sub connectors of different dimension into one connector module. The two smaller connectors are located below the larger connector but are not secured to the bracket to allow for variations in arrangement which require the lower connectors to be replaced with other electrical components which are directly soldered to the mother board. However, the majority of applications for the bracket do not utilize such additional electrical components.
Hence, an improved mechanism for combining several electrical connectors together to form a connector module is needed to eliminate the above mentioned defects of the prior art.